The Reformation of the Hollywood Porn Industry

Welcome to Porn Valley – The Land of Filth and Honeys – If only the name Silicon Valley wasn’t already taken.

Since the 1970s, the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles has been the epicenter of adult entertainment; The pornographic media capital. However, analysts are now seriously bringing that claim into question.

According to the 2004 HBO documentary series, Pornucopia: Going Down in the Valley, as much as 90% of the world’s legally produced porn was filmed in, or was produced by companies based in The Valley.

In 2013, The internet has taken the money shot.

The rise of free online streaming sites, and improvements to download speeds over the past 5 years, has forced a dramatic change across many spheres of the Hollywood porn industry. Smaller production companies are in a decline. There was a time when the industry publication Adult Video Magazine would run reviews on hundreds of new releases, this month there are 14.

As Louis Theroux writes, “Those movie companies that remain are focusing increasingly on high-end product, trying to beat the illegal sites by providing something like a cinematic experience.”

The evolving technoscape has had devastating effects on an industry that severely underestimated the impact online content would have on DVD sales. The current trend towards remakes and satires of mainstream Hollywood productions is a direct response to this phenomenon.

Francine Amidor, an accountant for one of the largest casting agencies, LA Direct, has seen the downsizing of the San Fernando porn industry first-hand, “Some girls get $600 for a scene now… It might be $900-$1,000 for a big-name girl. It used to get up to $3,000.”

At a time when, at any given second of the day, around 28,258 internet users are viewing pornography, it’s hard to imagine that this industry could be on shaky ground.

The media will always be there, expect its centralised capital may not.

There’s no doubt that porn will always be around, and will be produced at an ever increasing rate, but the monopoly of Los Angeles-based productions if quickly disappearing. The media capital is shifting from The Valley, to the geographically meaningless realm of the internet.